1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an input method, an input system, and a program for a touch panel display. More particularly, the invention relates to input means by which a mouse position in touch panel input can be accurately pointed to.
2. Description of the Related Art
Information appliances used by general public users, such as an ATM (automatic teller machine) and an ACM (automatic consulting machine), are designed to allow for general users who are not used to computer operation. Thus, many of these automatic appliances adopt a touch panel as an input device for convenience of users.
For example, Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. 2000-89887 describes a character input system for a touch panel. In this character input system, character buttons and other functional buttons are displayed on a touch panel, and a character is input in an input field by a touch of an area that displays the character. The system is also configured to pass an input string in the input field as an argument to an execution program in response to a touch of an area displaying an execution button. This input system enables even a user who is unfamiliar with computers to operate an information processing system (or terminal) such as a computer only by touching a touch panel.
In this character input system, a single operation of touching a touch panel provides execution of a procedure of detecting the touched position, determining a function (e.g., input of a character to an input field or execution of a program) assigned to an area that includes the touched position, and performing the function. Thus, a mouse input event is issued with a touch of the touch panel. Then, with this mouse input event, a mouse movement event is issued for moving the mouse position to the touched position, and at the same time, a mouse left click event is issued at the mouse position. The mouse left click event initiates a function specified by the mouse position, such as an application program.
In automatic appliances that have the above described input system or other types of touch panel input, mouse pointer display is disabled since there is little need to display the current mouse position.
The above described touch panel input provides a good user interface that is easily used by general users who are unfamiliar with computers. However, this interface may not be convenient in developing or maintaining application programs.
Specifically, in developing or maintaining programs, application programs such as an explorer are used to operate files and so on. In those application programs, a mouse position must be put on objects such as file names and a menu bar that are displayed in a relatively small area. However, such accurate pointing is difficult by touching a touch panel with a finger. Of course, if a system has an input interface that adopts a pointing device such as based on mouse input, input with accurate pointing is possible by means of such a pointing device. However, to reduce system cost, many systems do not have an input interface such as a mouse. Therefore, there is a problem that efficiency in developing programs and work efficiency in maintaining programs decrease.
Further, as described above, mouse pointer display is disabled in many systems. Thus, there is a problem that the current mouse position cannot be known in developing and maintaining programs in an on-site environment, which decreases development efficiency and work efficiency.
Further, as described above, a mouse movement event and a mouse left click event are issued substantially simultaneously for the conventional touch panel input. In developing and maintaining programs, however, it may be desired to issue a click event other than a mouse left click event, e.g., a mouse right click event and a drag-and-drop event, along with a mouse movement event. The conventional touch panel input has a problem that it cannot meet this need.
Among these problems, the problem that the mouse pointer is not displayed and the problem that a click event other than a mouse left click event are not issued may be addressed by improving application software or a device driver for the touch panel. However, since it is preferred that application software for performing on-site processing is as small as possible, additional utility software for use in developing and maintaining programs is not desirable. Further, because changing the device driver depends on a vendor or the type of the touch panel, it is desirable to have a solution that does not involve change of the device driver.